President Eisenhower Sharply Assails Soviet Anti-semitism

President Eisenhower, in his first message to a Jewish organization from the White House, today strongly condemned “the vicious anti-Semitism raging behind the Iron Curtain” and called upon every American “to guard our precious civil and religious liberties and to decry, with candor and courage, any violation of them.”

The President expressed these sentiments in a message sent to the American Jewish Committee on the occasion of its three-day 46th annual meeting which begins its sessions tomorrow in the Hotel Commodore in New York, to be attended by 500 leaders of American Jewry from all parts of the United States. Similar sentiments were expressed by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles in a communication sent to the American Jewish Committee parley.

President Eisenhower, in his message, said: “I congratulate the American Jewish Committee on the celebration of its 46th anniversary. You have waged a tireless fight in defense of the civil and religious rights of Jews over the span of a half-century, scarred by totalitarianism’s most violent assaults upon those rights. So doing, you have served the cause of freedom for peoples of all religions and all nationalities.

“In these days we are sharply reminded of the need and the meaning of your work by the vicious anti-Semitism raging behind the Iron Curtain. Once again purges, deportations and imprisonment are shown to be the stock weapons of the tyrant. Again we are taught that totalitarian systems, under any name, sooner or later employ the same weapons to serve the same evil ends.

“These bitter facts summon every free citizen to renew his awareness of his duty to do all in his power to honor and to guard our precious civil and religious liberties and to decry, with candor and courage, any violation of them. No violation is too trivial to be attacked. There is no such thing as a little bigotry–any more than there can be just a little persecution.

“For your work in inspiring our citizens’ consciousness of this truth, I congratulate you. May this work go ever forward, until we know ourselves to be truly worthy of the ideals we profess.”

Secretary Dulles pointed out in his message to the AJC that the “slave labor camps and ruthless purges are grim reminders elsewhere in the world of the bitter fruits of prejudice and discrimination. ” He added: “Your efforts to put down racial and religious bigotry serve the highest ideals of citizenship and you deserve the support and gratitude of all loyal Americans. Our great nation was conceived in tolerance and dedicated to equal opportunity to all. When you promote that concept, you are serving us all.”